Social Work is a multifaceted profession. One of the many tasks that a social worker must perform is
to give evidence in a court of law as an expert witness. The Criminal Procedure Act, Act 51 of 1977,
has been amended in respect of the child as witness. This Act now also makes provision for a social
worker to act as intermediary to facilitate in criminal procedures where children, being exposed to
substantial trauma and stress, are witnesses.
The courts have started to implement this amendment and social workers are being requested to act as
intermediaries in criminal proceedings. The social workers at the Child and Family Welfare Society
Kempton Park, amongst others, were requested on several occasions to act as intermediaries without
knowledge of the task to be performed. Due to a lack of knowledge and resources only the necessary
report was submitted to the court requesting the appointment of an intermediary. Probation officers
from the Department of Welfare were then requested to appear in court as intermediaries as they had
the necessary knowledge and training. This research attempts to highlight what a social worker as
intermediary, in criminal proceedings where children are witnesses, should do.
The researcher had a preference to the qualitative methodology, as it appeals to the researcher's
practical nature and the nature of the issue to be investigated as it is basic-explorative in nature. The
legal position of the sexually abused child as witness in criminal proceedings is assessed in order to
determine the consequences from several points of view. Criticism and obstacles in this regard and the
procedures of operation, as included in the Report from the Law Commission with specific reference
to the social worker as intermediary, are highlighted.